Everyone agrees: President Obama had a tough 2013. With his approval ratings falling, many Americans think it unlikely that the president will do much of significance for the remainder of his term. Second terms can be disheartening, especially when partisan gridlock blocks meaningful change.

But despite his inability to implement important policies this past year, President Obama has already accomplished something that future historians may well consider one of his greatest achievements. In his second term, President Obama is helping to reinvent American civil religion, the way we think about God and national purpose. Call it the Obama doctrine of American civil spirituality.

There is nothing new in reinventing civil religion. America's public God has had many faces through history: the stern God of Puritan Calvinism; the revolutionary God of Deist Providence; the activist God of Protestant Benevolence; the sword-wielding God of the Civil War; the earnest God of Progress; the tolerant God of Judeo-Christian America. As a people, we have a great capacity to create God in our image, a deity that baptizes each new American generation with a sense of destiny, purpose, and meaning. Our presidents serve as high priests of America's many gods. And if the past tells us anything, we can be certain that a new American god is being born as we move toward being a different, more religiously diverse nation.

In the 1990's LEGO responded to a rapidly changing toy market by pursuing innovation in a number of areas. In essence they got away from the brick (the thing that makes LEGO unique) and it almost killed them:

The company was trying to expand on so many fronts, it was in danger of losing its focus and discipline. If just a couple of those bets went bad, all of the LEGO Group might come crashing down. (Robertson, Location 918)

As I scan through my Feedly, and read hundreds of articles on all things Christian, I have to wonder if Christian blogging is causing the Church to spread itself too thin.

I've been blogging for awhile now and I think I understand the game fairly well. I know, for the most part, what type of article is likely to have a wide reach and which ones will sit on my site and collect dust. One that will gain traffic is the "Should Christians…" type of article.

One recent example—and I'm questioning my wisdom in making this specific—is this article by Owen Strachan. In that article Strachan asks whether or not Christians should step away from such a violent sport like football. The discussion was picked up on TGC and many other spots and for weeks we debated the question. SBTS even scheduled a discussion on the issue.

I'm not sure if there was ever a lot of people who did not believe that all people are made in the image of God, but I will take this never-the-less.

NEW YORK (RNS) A group of Christian leaders has set up a new campaign to emphasize that all people — gay, liberal, undocumented or otherwise — reflect the image of God.

Six Christian leaders, including Focus on the Family President Jim Daly, "Touched by an Angel" star Roma Downey and her producer husband Mark Burnett, have created a coalition called "Imago Dei," Latin for "image of God," to encourage people to treat each other with respect.

"If we had the image of God in mind for every human being, we could change the world," said the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, who is leading the cause. "I want Christians to not be known for what we oppose but for what we propose."

The campaign, also joined by Liberty Law School Dean Mat Staver and Life Today's James Robison, is intended to include all human beings, but it offers specific examples.

"For the image of God exists in all human beings: black and white; rich and poor; straight and gay; conservative and liberal; victim and perpetrator; citizen and undocumented; believer and unbeliever," the campaign states.

Rodriguez said it's not intended to target a specific group or issue, even as the campaign has raised eyebrows for attracting the support of conservative leaders who have vocally opposed gay rights in recent years.

"We intentionally listed groups to capture the idea that there's no exception to the rule. Our emphasis is not LGBT or political ideology or color of skin," he said. "It's not germane as to whether or not people can change sexuality or not. It's not about condoning a lifestyle, political ideology, worldview."